Tuesday, September 1

summer vacation part 6 of 6

here we are, at the end of the vacation. on their last day together, the kids were treated with a trip to a restaurant designed for train fanatics. oh my. to eat and control the little zipping trains as they course through the miniature cities, well, for the preschool set nothing gets much cooler. since we returned we have heard from shara-chan's parents that she and her sister cannot wait for our return so we can all go to the train restaurant again. which is funny because sebastian has the same plan in mind.our last day was bittersweet. so much beauty, you can't be too melancholy but knowing we had to leave it was a little heartbreaking. we had to travel back through osaka to get to the bus station. it was a saturday night and umeda is really, really busy on saturday nights. but we pushed our way through the crowds and found a little quiet oasis where by our extreme good luck there just happened to be, gasp, a pokemon center. (it is like a disney store but full of pokemon stuff) i think sebastian's little pleasure meter just burst out the top at this point. luckily for my wallet, it was closing when we discovered it so we were able to just get a little bit of paraphernalia before heading back to the bus station. the rest of the trip was easy. we arrived in nagasaki early in the morning, stashed our stuff at the ferry terminal, and did a little exploring but spent most of our time lounging at a park where there was plenty of shade and a limited express train line running next to it (if you have kids who like trains, you will know this is a positive aspect). back to the island and regular life but full of a week's worth of happy memories.